Including the Heat, who are still in the playoff race. But they deemed saving money more important than maximizing their long odds of reaching the postseason.

A team claiming McGruder off waivers must use a trade exception or cap space and have an open roster spot. No team will cross this year’s luxury-tax line to add McGruder. The Clippers make a lot of sense, especially because they could use his low cap hold next summer while pursuing star free agents. But teams below the Clippers in the standings will have priority and could also make a claim.

If McGruder goes unclaimed, Miami will lose him and still be on the hook for the luxury tax. So, this is a high-stakes waiver period for the Heat.

Johnson was entitled to a trade bonus of $1,043,817. But this deal doesn’t meet salary-matching requirements if he gets the full amount. It’d work only if Johnson gets $111,563 or less. So, he had to waive the rest of his trade bonus (or more) to allow the deal. I’m not sure why he left money on the table to leave Miami, which is in the playoff hunt and where he’s getting plenty of playing time, to get to lowly Phoenix. Perhaps, he sees an opportunity with the Suns desperate at point guard. The Heat’s backcourt is more crowded with Josh Richardson, Justise Winslow, Dwyane Wade, Rodney McGruder, Dion Waiters and Goran Dragic, who’ll eventually get healthy. Still, it’s not as if the Suns will remain content with Johnson. They’ll keep searching for upgrades.

As someone on a one-year contract who’ll have Bird Rights this offseason, Ellington had the right to veto any trade. His decision to approve makes more sense. He wasn’t playing in Miami, and it seems Phoenix will flip him to a better team or, more likely, buy him out. The sweet-shooting Ellington could help plenty of winners.

The Heat now reduce their pending luxury-tax bill by $7,958,197 and save $1,841,835 on the players’ remaining salaries for the rest of this season (though Miami will have to pay any trade bonus Johnson received). Now just $1,176,019 over the luxury-tax line, expect the Heat to find another move that gets them fully out of the tax before tomorrow’s trade deadline.

Miami also shapes up to save money next season. Johnson will be due $19,245,370, but just $15,643,750 of Ryan Anderson‘s $21,264,635 2019-20 salary is guaranteed.

The 30-year-old Anderson hasn’t played much for the Suns, and this trade calls attention to him reducing his 2019-20 guarantee to facilitate a trade from the Rockets last offseason. Miami has even less of a place for Adnderson, and it appears that money is going down the drain for him.

That leaves Johnson as the only player involved in this trade likely to receive a substantial role with his new team. The 26-year-old is a reasonable combo guard who’s wildly overpaid. Phoenix apparently values at him at the $3,601,620 difference between Johnson’s salary and Anderson’s guaranteed amount next season plus the cost of taking Ellington now. Considering any team considering trading for Johnson next season will consider him at his full salary, I don’t like the Suns’ move here.

For the Heat, it’s a big money-saver that couldn’t be turned down. It’ll look even better if/when they fully dodge the tax with one more move.

Bryn Forbes‘ 2014 transfer from Cleveland State to Michigan State was well-covered in the media. Nearly every article on it explained Forbes’ reasoning: The Lansing, Mich., native wanted to be closer to his son, who was born the year prior, and his sister, who was suffering from what would be a fatal illness.

And those explanations weren’t wrong. Family was Forbes’ primary concern.

But he had another reason: He wanted to better prepare for the NBA.

Forbes kept that one close to the vest. After all, he was a 6-foot-3 scoring guard with unexceptional athleticism. He ranked third in his 2012 recruiting class… at Cleveland State. He didn’t even make the All-Horizon League first team.

Forbes worked hard in East Lansing, developing into a college star. Not bad for someone the Spartans initially offered only a preferred-walk-on spot despite Forbes playing in their backyard with Michigan State commit Denzel Valentine (now with the Bulls) at Lansing Sexton High School. Still, Forbes looked like the archetypical good shooter without the size or athleticism to make the NBA.

Leading up to the 2016 draft, DraftExpress ranked the top shooters in the draft. Forbes’ name appeared once – to note why he wasn’t otherwise included:

Please note that this is not an exhaustive study including all of the best shooters in college basketball or even in the 2016 NBA Draft Class. The only players included in this subset are those deemed to “draftable” NBA prospects. Players like Max Hooper (6-6, SG, Oakland, 3.3 3s made per game, 46% 3P%), Max Landis (6-2, SG, IPFW, 3.8 3s made per game, 46% 3P%), Bryn Forbes (6-3, SG, Michigan State, 3.2 3s made per game, 48% 3P%) for example were excluded, amongst others.

He signed a barely guaranteed contract with San Antonio and quickly impressed Spurs president-coach Gregg Popovich with his work ethic, coachability and 3-point shot. Against all odds, Forbes made San Antonio’s regular-season roster and earned an NBA salary.

Forbes still spent much of his first professional season with the Spurs’ minor-league affiliate playing point guard. He’s more of an off guard, but that time helped him develop his ball-handling and passing.

In his second season, Forbes became a rotation regular and spot-starter. He played 1,517 minutes on a 47-win team. After the season, he signed a two-year, $6 million deal with the Spurs.

Though Forbes has expanded his all-around game, that merely got other facets to tolerable levels. He remains a 3-point specialist, and his 43.6% 3-point percentage ranks 12th in the NBA:

Maybe Forbes wouldn’t be in this position if San Antonio didn’t suffer so many backcourt injuries this season. Dejounte Murray is missing the entire season. Lonnie Walker just got healthy. Derrick White was sidelined for the start of the year.

Forbes has considered similar “what ifs” in the past. What if he stayed at Cleveland State? Would he have had the platform to showcase himself for the NBA? Eventually, he decided not to dwell on that.

“I think, one way or another,” Forbes said, “I would have found a way.”

For three seasons, Briante Weber has bounced around the fringes of the NBA. The defensive-minded point guard has played in short stints (often 10-day contracts) for the Grizzlies, Heat, Warriors, Hornets, and last season he got in 13 games for the Rockets (plus five in Memphis). He’s spent most of his career in the G-League, working for his chance to get in the door.

Miami is bringing him into training camp, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical at Yahoo Sports.

Guard Briante Weber has agreed to a partially guaranteed deal to return to the Miami Heat, league sources tell Yahoo.

There is roster space in Miami if Webber blows them away. Miami has 12 fully guaranteed roster spots and, with Webber, two partially-guaranteed deals (Malik Newman, who was undrafted out of Kansas, is the other).

Dwyane Wade got the 8,000th field goal of his career in the first half, but left less than a minute into the fourth quarter with what was diagnosed as a mild left hamstring strain. The Heat have a six-hour flight to Portland on Sunday, in advance of a game there Monday.

Jodie Meeks scored 23 for the Wizards, whose five-game winning streak was snapped. Bradley Beal scored 14 for Washington, which was outscored 76-42 in the paint – even on a night where Heat center Hassan Whiteside couldn’t play because of hip pain and his replacement, Bam Adebayo, was limited with foul trouble.

Washington was within 46-44 with 3:51 left in the second quarter, and from there it was all Heat. Over the next 16 minutes, Miami outscored the Wizards 71-35.

It was Miami’s 11th consecutive game scoring at least 100 points, tying the third-longest such streak in team history.

Miami (36-31) carved out a split of the four-game season series with Washington, plus got within two games of the Wizards (38-29) in the Eastern Conference playoff race. A loss on Saturday and the Heat chances of catching the Wizards would have taken a serious hit – since they would have been four games down and with no hope of winning a tiebreaker.